Blessing I Don't Think So

Counting our Blessings

Prior to conjuring up things we should do but never do (New Year Resolutions), I guess it is appropriate that we count our blessings. I have in this blog bemoaned the actions of our once great president castigating him for being everything from an inexperienced boob to an inveterate campaigner. And I was quick to point out the glaring “cave-ins.” Well I guess some would say a serving of crow is in order. But not so fast. I am not ready to relent and call the recent gains great strides forward.
First, the biggest winner in the past two years were the fat cats. I am not talking about people holding a job. I am talking about those who sit on the top of this economy and continue to grow richer and richer while the average Joe struggles to make it or even hold on to his job. When you hear the president bore you with his successes, please recite the mantra “at what cost.” That tax cut was indicative of how things go in this country. They get a huge chunk of the pie and we get the crumbs. I often wonder just how much the rich need and then I thought of old Scrooge McDuck and then I get an inkling that there is never enough. So the country goes into hock with China while the super rich scour the yachting magazine for a newer model, and the average Joe gets unemployment. What a country!!
So Obama will say we got a health care program, but not with a public option. The funny thing about that result is that a public option would have canceled out any potential law suit. You have to wonder if the insurance industry purposely got that provision kicked out so they could mount a legal challenge through their emissaries. But that would mean they were devious, not those honorable folks. And we don't need a soothsayer to divine what our illustrious Supreme Court Justices will rule, do we?
The first responders got their bill, watered down, but you have to wonder if those pompous conservatives talking about the deficit were shamed into voting. Gays got their right to join the military. Big deal! It was so long in coming that it was absolutely absurd to count it as anything but something that was long over due. But not too fast, the military has to study it.
And before we get all pumped up with successes, let us remember that the wars continue. Young men die and get wounded while those we are supposedly saving plot ways to steal our money and cooperate with those who are our mortal enemies.
A recent cover of AARP had George W on the cover. He has no regrets, well maybe a few. It is amazing that in this crazy world we live in, a man can screw up royally and go on to be portrayed as a regular guy. While he smiles, the misery his policies generated continues. So on this Christmas, I will skip counting the blessings and focus on the glaring things that need attention. It seems to me we are witnessing the decline of this nation. And we the great mass of humanity who long for a better way are left with a system that continues to focus on those who don't need it at the expense of those who do. If this tax cut is such a great stimulus, how come it hasn't worked?
So my New Year's resolution is to stop being such a boob and take things at face value. I have already started. No more TV news, no more presidential press conferences, no more Obama and White House e-mails. No more BS.